Three possible arson fires in 12 hours keep Vallejo firefighters busy

The damage in the immediate aftermath of a suspicious fire early Thursday in The Village Cocktail Lounge on Tuolumne Street in Vallejo. The blaze was one of three, two-alarm fires to break out within blocks of each other in a 12-hour period. (Rachel Raskin-Zrihen/Times-Herald)

All caused major damage but no injuries, they said, and are being investigated as possible arsons.

"It's the night that never ends," Capt. Matt Fenzl said, standing outside the scene of the third blaze at York and Amador streets and Solano Avenue, at the vacant AAA Pet Clinic building.

Fenzl, Battalion Chief Raymond Jackson and Fire Chief Paige Meyer said the three fires appear deliberately set, and also related, though they're all under investigation.

"They're definitely suspicious," Jackson said. "We have a proximity situation. I don't know if they're connected, but if it walks like a duck. ..."

The first fire broke out in a vacant house in the 1500 block of Alabama Street at about 8:15 p.m. Wednesday. The second gutted the Village Cocktail Lounge on Tuolumne Street near Alabama Street at about 2:45 a.m. Thursday, and the third, at the vacant pet clinic, came in about five hours later, at 7:30 a.m., officials said.

"You could see the bar fire from the house fire," Jackson said.

All three of these fires are also within a short distance of the recent blazes at Mayor Osby Davis' Tuolumne Street office, a vacant Victorian music school on Amador and a vacant mortuary on Couch Street. A suspect was recently arrested in two of those fires.

The rash of suspected arson fires also kept Greg Marshall of Premier Construction busy boarding up burned out buildings, he said. He said he had a crew working on The Village bar even as they prepared to head to the pet clinic site.

Unlike the other two recent fires, the one at the bar destroyed a working business and cost four jobs just before the holidays, bar owner Raul Salaice said.

"The most disappointing thing is that my employees are out of work now," said Salaice, a five-year Vallejo resident who bought the bar just three months ago. The lounge hosted a presidential debate event weeks ago, he said.

Salaice and several patrons who came by Thursday morning to survey the damage said the bar's been operating there at least since the 1970s.

"There were about 10 really old collectible beer signs," as well as new TVs and a newly remodeled restroom, he said. It's not the first fire nearby, either, he said.

"The building behind me has been lit up three times," Salaice said, adding that this fire appears to have been started from the alley behind the building.

"It's one of those things that happens," Salaice said. "Life throws you different punches at different times."

Contact staff writer Rachel Raskin-Zrihen at (707) 553-6824 or rzrihen@timesheraldonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at RachelVTH.